"Picture, if you can a shadowy chamber, faintly illuminated by a single column of twilight. A waterfall showers and crashes amidst a pool of light, its sound competing with two other torrents that spill down vague silver ribbons in the gloom nearby. Great walls soar upwards converging unseen in the darkness far overhead, and distant boulder slopes rear up to provide a final backdrop."(This is taken from a passage from Andy Sparrows ‘The Complete Caving Manual’ and it describes the main chamber of Gapping Ghyll)






But in reality you can look forward to crawling, scrambling, climbing and squeezing through muddy limestone surfaces with the chance of going to a place that relatively few people have been before.


Some caves have huge caverns to explore.


Some caves are very wet...


The County Caving Advisor discovers how muddy some caves can be!

How caves are formed
Three hundred million years ago, during the carboniferous period, the oceans teemed with life. In warm shallow seas, shellfish and primitive plants lived, died and decayed amongst the coral. The shells and skeletal remains of these creatures combined on the sea bed with other sediments to form a deposit rich in calcium carbonate. Over hundreds of thousands of years the deposits deepened. These deposits were compressed under their own massive weight to form the rock we call limestone, the differing bands or beds of these dead creatures formed horizontal cracks or bedding planes. Huge pressures and stresses caused other vertical cracks or joints to develop. Rain falling through the atmosphere absorbs carbon dioxide to become a weak solution of carbonic acid, as this acid rain falls and trickles through the topsoil it increases in strength. When this acid hits the limestone, it slowly dissolves this rock, usually finding the weakest point cracks or joints and this is how cave passages start their life.


The chemistry within a cave can produce some very delicate formations.


In this case, the formations have grown to fill the gap between the floor and ceiling.


Limestone can contain many fossils, small shells can be seen in this example.

There are four main caving regions in Great Britain, these are South Wales, Peak District, Yorkshire and the Mendip Hills in Somerset. The majority of the caving done by scouts in Buckinghamshire is done in the Mendip Hills, the reason for this is that it offers a wide range of caves to suit all abilities.


Maps of cave systems help cavers navigate


Sometimes formations can include different minerals which produce varying colours.


This caver discovers how cold the water can be.